Everyone, well, almost everyone here is equipped with mobile phones with cameras, digital cameras and most importantly, high speed access to the internet. Thus citizens are able to capture news and images at a moments' notice and post it online. All these conveniences would grant anyone the prospect of being a journalist.
"To understand the evolution of tomorrow’s news, we need to understand the technologies that are making it possible. The tools of tomorrow’s participatory journalism are evolving quickly."
(Gillmore, 2004)
What is Citizen Journalism?Citizen journalism, also known as "participatory journalism", is the act of citizens playing an actiave role in collecting, reporting and desseminating news and information (Citizen Journalism, 2007). With the evolution of the Internet, websites are no longer just a "read only" medium but a "read-write" medium. We now, than ever before, have access to a broader variety of current information, and we can use it with increasing sophistication (Gillmore, 2004).
This allows users to actively participate online, in this case to desseminate news and information, to create a form of "user generated content" for the people who want to be better informed. Today, to get "up-to-the-minute" and valid news, the Internet is the key.
STOMP - Singapore's Platform?
STOMP (Straits Times Online Mobile Print), a website hosted by Singapore Press Holdings, hopes to "engage" Singaporeans in "exciting new ways". STOMP is a site that delievers interactive content that will, "develop new communities of Singaporeans bonded together by shared interests." (http://www.stomp.com.sg/about/about.html)
With that said, STOMP is a very good example for a platform for citizen journalism. I reiterate, it is a good platform, not an ideal one. It is a good platform for citizen journalism because of the traffic and the fact that there are alot of Singaporeans who are actively participating. However, the website looks more like just one big, interactive forum. I would admit that there are a couple of very interesting "stories", but none of them would come close to a journalistic write up.
An example of an "ideal" citizen journalism platform for me, personally, would be OhMyNews (http://english.ohmynews.com/index.asp) - An online newspaper in Korea (now International) that accept, edit and publish articles from its readers, in open source style of news reporting.This is ideal because, like STOMP, it also have many interactive elements to it. But unlike STOMP, it involves news internationally with writers from all over the globe. And unlike STOMP, all the stories published have full journalistic qualities.
Improvements:
The improvements I would make to STOMP is to involve more journalistic work other than the random pictures and "shabby" write ups. Not all news websites have to be boring, and STOMP is the clear example of that. However, the website is too "casual" for my taste. Especially when it aims to be "a more interactive form" of news provider (http://www.stomp.com.sg/about/about.html). "News" being the operative word, it can be a more professional news site and still be able to "engage" the readers in areas that appeal to them.
REFERENCES:
Citizen Journalism, (2007). In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on March 30, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Citizen_journalism&oldid=118429022
Gillmore, D. (2004). We, the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Retrived on March 30, 2007 from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tipe=text/html#chap1
OhMyNews. Retrieved on March 30, 2007 from http://english.ohmynews.com/index.asp
STOMP. Retrieved on March 30, 2007 from http://www.stomp.com.sg/
1 comment:
Jon, I wanted to see you share you opinion on Stomp using lessons learnt from citizen journalism, rather than to simply explain what citizen journalism is about. Always remember what the assignment is really about. I'll give you 3/3 for effort.
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